Truth Prevails — Page 4
( 4 ) strong enough position to come out boldly with the views hidden in their mind. At all events we see here the belief that the Promised Messiah was a Prophet, and the entire idea of Prophethood, with all its implications, was not a doctrine which Hazrat Khalifatul Masih II carved out in 1914, for obtaining an emotional hold on the mass of the popular mind in the general membership of the Movement. Mr. Faruqi’s contention in this behalf is a wrong statement that Hazrat Mirza Mahmud Ahmad cleverly carved out a convenient new doctrine, in 1914, after he had been elected Khalifa, on the death of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih I. We might also add here that in 1914 a poem was published in the Paigham-i-Sulha in support of the belief in the Prophethood of the Promised Messiah. Here is the substance of some of the couplets: What a wonderful perfection has Khatm-i-Risalat shown to the world! It has made the river of Nabuwwat (Prophethood) to flow in the Ummat. On the basis of this blessing we have achieved the foremost position, in comparison with the other Ummats. What is the harm, among the followers of the Holy Prophet Mohammad, if one has appeared among us as a Prophet? For the true Believer, if there is any glad tiding, it lies in this point, and whatever miracle is now possible among the Muslims, it is only on this account! ( Paigham-i-Sulha, February 12, 1914) Maulvi Mohammad Ali’s Testimony in the Law-Court In 1904, Maulvi Karamdin of Jehlum had a law suit of libel against the Promised Messiah that the latter had defamed him by calling him a ‘ Kazzab ’. In this suit Maulvi Karamdin cited Maulvi Mohammad Ali as a Prosecution witness in the court on a solemn oath, Maulvi Mohammad Ali deposed: 1. “In regard to a man who claims to be a Nabi (Prophet), where a man denies this claim, he becomes, thereby a ‘ Kazzab ’. The Mirza Sahib claims he is a Prophet. ” 2. “The Mirza Sahib, in many of his works, puts forth this claim which is to the effect that he is a Prophet from God, though he is not the bearer of a new Sharia. Where a man denies a claim of this kind, he becomes, thereby, a ‘ Kazzab ’. ” (File of the law-suit, page 362) This witness of Maulvi Mohammad Ali in a law-court, under solemn oath, with the Promised Messiah present in the court-room, is of great significance. If the Promised Messiah had not claimed that he was a Prophet, it was clearly a moral obligation that he should have, then and there, corrected his follower. Moreover, the Promised Messiah deposed in the same court that he was Zilli Nabi , the bearer of a prophethood, which was in substance, a blessed shadow of the Nabuwwat of his Master, the Holy Prophet Mohammad.